Three essays on B2B e-market firms: Functionality, adoption and alliance strategies.
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文摘
Business-to-business (B2B) e-market firms have emerged as an innovative form of business intermediaries based on Internet and Web technologies. Along with the increasing adoption, B2B e-markets are evolving their business models and searching for success strategies in a swift and creative manner. There is a strong need for research into the strategies and capabilities of these technology-driven firms. In this dissertation, we define a B2B e-market as a firm or a subsidiary of a firm that hosts and operates Internet- and Web-based information systems by which other firms can purchase and sell products. Our research consists of three complementary studies, which collectively address some of the pertinent issues and challenges in this context.;The first study presents a theory-based framework that argues in favor of a value proposition-“perfecting” set of functions of these online markets. Specifically, B2B e-market firms provide market-making functions (such as aggregation, matching, settlement and trust) and support management of interorganizational relationships and processes. B2B e-markets also function as technology adapters that offer infrastructures and services to promote interoperability among trading networks.;The second study is an empirical investigation of the alliance strategies that B2B e-market firms implement to expand their functionality. From news releases and databases on alliances, we compiled a dataset with 319 alliance incidents involving 193 B2B e-market firms, and also identified another 136 B2B e-market firms that have not formed alliances. This study finds that early entrants and market followers in the arena of B2B e-markets tend to form alliances more frequently than later entrants and market leaders. It also shows that partnerships enhance viability for market followers but not leaders.;The third study develops a formal model to analyze the adoption decisions of B2B e-market firms in the e-procurement context. The primary finding is that a buyer will adopt an e-market approach when the supplier's competitive advantage derived from access to strategic information is modest compared with the sum of channel efficiency and marketplace benefit less the channel costs. Taken together, these three studies contribute to current research and practice in electronic markets, interorganizational information systems, and supply chain management.